Jouissance is a Lacanian concept, infamous for being impervious to understanding and which expresses the paradoxical satisfaction that a subject may derive from his symptom. On the basis of Freud’s “experience of satisfaction” we have proposed a first working definition of jouissance as the (benefit gained from) the motor tension underlying the action which was [once] adequate in bringing relief to the drive and, on the basis of their striking reciprocal resonances, we have proposed that central dopaminergic systems could embody (...) the physiological architecture of Freud’s concept of the drive. We have then distinguished two constitutive axes to jouissance: one concerns the subject’s body and the other the subject’s history. Four distinctive aspects of these axes are discussed both from a metapsychological and from a neuroscience point of view. We conclude that jouissance could be described as an accumulation of body tension, fuelling for action, but continuously balancing between reward and anxiety, and both marking the physiology of the body with the history of its commemoration and arising from this inscription as a constant push to act and to repeat. Moroever, it seems that the mesolimbic accumbens dopaminergic pathway is a reasonable candidate for its underlying physiological architecture. (shrink)

Although the multimodal stimulation provided by modern audiovisual video games is pleasing by itself, the rewarding nature of video game playing depends critically also on the players’ active engagement in the gameplay. The extent to which active engagement influences dopaminergic brain reward circuit responses remains unsettled. Here we show that striatal reward circuit responses elicited by successes (wins) and failures (losses) in a video game are stronger during active than vicarious gameplay. Eleven healthy males both played a competitive (...) first-person tank shooter game (active playing) and watched a pre-recorded gameplay video (vicarious playing) while their hemodynamic brain activation was measured with 3-tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Wins and losses were paired with symmetrical monetary rewards and punishments during active and vicarious playing so that the external reward context remained identical during both conditions. Brain activation was stronger in the orbitomedial prefrontal cortex (omPFC) during winning than losing, both during active and vicarious playing conditions. In contrast, both wins and losses suppressed activations in the midbrain and striatum during active playing; however, the striatal suppression, particularly in the anterior putamen, was more pronounced during loss than win events. Sensorimotor confounds related to joystick movements did not account for the results. Self-ratings indicated losing to be more unpleasant during active than vicarious playing. Our findings demonstrate striatum to be selectively sensitive to self-acquired rewards, in contrast to frontal components of the reward circuit that process both self-acquired and passively received rewards. We propose that the striatal responses to repeated acquisition of rewards that are contingent on game related successes contribute to the motivational pull of video-game playing. (shrink)

Several psychological theories assume that there are two basic brain mechanisms that guide behavior: an avoidance or inhibition system, which is responsive to signals of punishment, and an approach or activation system, which is sensitive to signals of reward. Several self-report scales have been developed to assess the sensitivity to punishment and reward, and these instruments have been shown to be useful in research on personality, psychopathology, and underlying biological substrates. However, it is also true that in particular (...) scales for measuring reward responsiveness suffer from various inadequacies. Therefore, a new Reward Responsiveness (RR) scale was developed and subjected to an extensive psychometric evaluation. The results show that this scale measures a single factor, reward responsiveness that is clearly independent of punishment sensitivity. Further, the data indicated that the internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity, test-retest reliability, and predictive properties of the new scale were all adequate. It can be concluded that the RR scale is a psychometrically sound instrument that may be useful for researchers with interest in the personality construct of reward responsiveness. (shrink)

Attention selects stimuli for perceptual and cognitive processing according to an adaptive selection schedule. It has long been known that attention selects stimuli that are task relevant or perceptually salient. Recent evidence has shown that stimuli previously associated with reward persistently capture attention involuntarily, even when they are no longer associated with reward. Here we examine whether the capture of attention by previously reward-associated stimuli is modulated by the processing of current but unrelated rewards. Participants learned to (...) associate two color stimuli with different amounts of reward during a training phase. In a subsequent test phase, these previously rewarded color stimuli were occasionally presented as to-be-ignored distractors while participants performed visual search for each of two differentially rewarded shape-defined targets. The results reveal that attentional capture by formerly rewarded distractors was the largest when both recently received and currently expected reward were the highest in the test phase, even though such rewards were unrelated to the color distractors. Our findings support a model in which value-driven attentional biases acquired through reward learning are maintained via the cognitive mechanisms involved in predicting future rewards. (shrink)

The present paper aims to advance the understanding of the control of human behavior by integrating two lines of literature that so far have led separate lives. First, one line of literature is concerned with the ideomotor principle of human behavior, according to which actions are represented in terms of their outcomes. The second line of literature mainly considers the role of reward signals in adaptive control. Here, we offer a combined perspective on how outcome representations and reward (...) signals work together to modulate adaptive control processes. We propose that reward signals signify the value of outcome representations and facilitate the recruitment of control resources in situations where behavior needs to be maintained or adapted to attain the represented outcome. We discuss recent research demonstrating how adaptive control of goal-directed behavior may emerge when outcome representations are co-activated with positive reward signals. (shrink)

Recently, the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has been shown to be critically involved in decision-making, action selection, and motor control. Here we investigate the effect of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the STN on reward-based decision-learning in patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD). We determined computational measures of outcome evaluation and reward prediction from PD patients who performed a probabilistic reward-based decision-learning task. In previous work, these measures covaried with activation in the nucleus caudatus (outcome evaluation during the (...) early phases of learning) and the putamen (reward prediction during later phases of learning). We observed that stimulation of the STN motor regions in PD patients served to improve reward-based decision-learning, probably through its effect on activity in frontostriatal motor loops (prominently involving the putamen and, hence, reward prediction). In a subset of relatively younger patients with relatively shorter disease duration, the effects of DBS appeared to spread to more cognitive regions of the STN, benefitting loops that connect the caudate to various prefrontal areas important for outcome evaluation. These results highlight positive effects of STN stimulation on cognitive functions that may benefit PD patients in daily-life association-learning situations. (shrink)

Acts of helping others are often based on mixed motivations. Based on this claim, it has been argued that the use of a financial reward to incentivize organ donation is compatible with promoting altruism in organ donation. In its report Human Bodies: Donation for Medicine and Research, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics uses this argument to justify its suggestion to pilot a funeral payment scheme to incentivize people to register for deceased organ donation in the UK. In this article, (...) I cast a sceptical eye on the above Nuffield report's argument that its proposed funeral payment scheme would prompt deceased organ donations that remain altruistic . Specifically, I illustrate how this scheme may prompt various forms of mixed motivations which would not satisfy the report's definition of altruism. Insofar as the scheme produces an expectation of the reward, it stands diametrical to promoting an ‘altruistic perspective’. My minimal goal in this article is to argue that altruism is not motivationally compatible with reward as an incentive for donation. My broader goal is to argue that if a financial reward is used to incentivize organ donation, then we should recognize that the donation system is no longer aiming to promote altruism. Rewarded donation would not be altruistic but it may be ethical given a persistent organ shortage situation. (shrink)

Stress may promote the onset of psychopathology by disrupting reward processing. However, the extent to which stress impairs reward processing, rather than incentive processing more generally, is unclear. To evaluate the specificity of stress-induced reward processing disruption, 100 psychiatrically healthy females were administered a probabilistic stimulus selection task enabling comparison of sensitivity to reward-driven (Go) and punishment-driven (NoGo) learning under either ‘no stress’ or ‘stress’ (threat-of-shock) conditions. Cortisol samples and self-report measures were collected. Contrary to hypotheses, (...) the groups did not differ significantly in task performance or cortisol reactivity. However, further analyses focusing only on individuals under ‘stress’ who were high responders with regard to both cortisol reactivity and self-reported negative affect revealed reduced reward sensitivity relative to individuals tested in the ‘no stress’ condition; importantly, these deficits were reward-specific. Overall, findings provide preliminary evidence that stress-reactive individuals show diminished sensitivity to reward but not punishment under stress. While such results highlight the possibility that stress-induced anhedonia might be an important mechanism linking stress to affective disorders, future studies are necessary to confirm this conjecture. (shrink)

The mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) system linking the dopaminergic midbrain to the prefrontal cortex and subcortical striatum has been shown to be sensitive to reinforcement in animals and humans. Within this system, coexistent segregated striato-frontal circuits have been linked to different functions. In the present study, we tested patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder characterised by dopaminergic cell loss, on two reward-based learning tasks assumed to differentially involve dorsal and ventral striato-frontal circuits. 15 non-depressed and non-demented PD patients (...) on levodopa monotherapy were tested both on and off medication. Levodopa had beneficial effects on the performance on an instrumental learning task with constant stimulus-reward associations, hypothesized to rely on dorsal striato-frontal circuits. In contrast, performance on a reversal learning task with changing reward contingencies, relying on ventral striato-frontal structures, was better in the unmedicated state. These results are in line with the “overdose hypothesis” which assumes detrimental effects of dopaminergic medication on functions relying upon less affected regions in PD. This study demonstrates, in a within-subject design, a double dissociation of dopaminergic medication and performance on two reward-based learning tasks differing in regard to whether reward contingencies are constant or dynamic. There was no evidence for a dose effect of levodopa on reward-based behaviour with the patients’ actual levodopa dose being uncorrelated to their performance on the reward-based learning tasks. (shrink)

The human reward system is sensitive to both social (e.g., validation) and non-social rewards (e.g., money) and is likely integral for relationship development and reputation building. However, data is sparse on the question of whether implicit social reward processing meaningfully contributes to explicit social representations such as trust and attachment security in pre-existing relationships. This event-related fMRI experiment examined reward system prediction-error activity in response to a potent social reward—social validation—and this activity’s relation to both attachment (...) security and trust in the context of real romantic relationships. During the experiment, participants’ expectations for their romantic partners’ positive regard of them were confirmed (validated) or violated, in either positive or negative directions. Primary analyses were conducted using predefined regions of interest, the locations of which were taken from previously published research. Results indicate that activity for mid-brain and striatal reward system regions of interest was modulated by social reward expectation violation in ways consistent with prior research on reward prediction-error. Additionally, activity in the striatum during viewing of disconfirmatory information was associated with both increases in post-scan reports of attachment anxiety and decreases in post-scan trust, a finding that follows directly from representational models of attachment and trust. (shrink)

Ideomotor theory states that the formation of anticipatory representations about the perceptual consequences of an action (i.e. action-effect (A-E) binding) provides the functional basis of voluntary action control. A host of studies has demonstrated that A-E binding occurs fast and effortlessly, yet only little is known about cognitive and affective factors that influence this learning process. In the present study, we sought to test whether the motivational value of an action modulates the acquisition of A-E associations. To this end, we (...) associated specific actions with monetary incentives during the acquisition of novel A-E mappings. In a subsequent test phase, the degree of binding was assessed by presenting the former effect stimuli as task-irrelevant response primes in a forced-choice response task in the absence of any reward. Binding, as indexed by response priming through the former action effects, was only found for reward-related A-E mappings. Moreover, the degree to which reward associations modulated the binding strength was predicted by individuals’ trait sensitivity to reward. These observations indicate that the association of actions and their immediate outcomes depends on the motivational value of the action during learning, as well as on the motivational disposition of the individual. On a larger scale, these findings also highlight the link between ideomotor theories and reinforcement-learning theories, providing an interesting perspective for future research on anticipatory regulation of behavior. (shrink)

Impulsivity is a feature of many brain disorders. Although often defined as the predisposition to act with an inadequate degree of deliberation, forethought or control, it has proven difficult to measure. This may in part be because, increasingly, impulsivity is recognized as a multifaceted construct, with impulsive decisions potentially arising due to a number of underlying mechanisms. Indeed, in certain contexts, a ‘functional’ degree of impulsivity may promote effective, motivated behavior in healthy participants. Although many tasks have been developed to (...) study impulsivity, few examine decisions made rapidly, for time-sensitive rewards: In this context, a degree of impulsivity may be adaptive. In the current study we examine behavior in 59 adults on a manual ‘Traffic Light’ task which requires participants to take risks under time pressure, if they are to maximize reward. We show that behavioral variables that index rapid anticipatory responding in this paradigm are correlated with a specific self-report measure of impulsivity: ‘lack of premeditation’ on the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale. Participants who scored more highly on this subscale performed better on the task. Moreover, anticipatory behavior reduced significantly with age (18-79 years), an effect that continued to be upheld after correction for potential age differences in the ability to judge the timing of responses. Based on these findings, we argue that the Traffic Light task provides a parametric method to study a ‘functional’ aspect of impulsivity in health and disease: namely, rapid decision-making in pursuit of risky, time-sensitive rewards. (shrink)

Recently, positive mood has been shown to reduce cognitive conflicts and adaptation related to conflict control. Van Steenbergen et al. (2009) proposed that short-term adaptation after conflict is driven by the aversive quality of the conflict. They reasoned that monetary gain and its positive emotional consequences might counteract the aversive quality of the preceding conflict and hence reduce subsequent conflict-driven adaptation processes. According to Ashby et al. (1999), however, positive affect increases cognitive flexibility and might, therefore, support cognitive conflict control. (...) In two experiments, we combined Simon-type conflicts with monetary gains and losses in between trials and analyzed event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In Experiment 1 gains and losses were applied randomly as a lottery in between two Simon trials whereas in the second experiment gains and losses were related to behavioral performance. Either the 25 % fastest responses were rewarded or the 25 % slowest responses were penalized. In Experiment 1 conflict adaptation was not at all modulated by gains and losses and in Experiment 2 conflict adaptation increased after a gain. In addition we analyzed the error-related negativity (ERN) in Experiment 2 – a brain signal proposed to be related to the reward prediction error and response conflicts. The ERN and post-error slowing were enlarged in the context of reward. We conclude that a context of reward increases the subjective value of an error, thus, enhancing error adaptation. However, modulatory effects of affective states on cognitive conflict control are much more limited as previously asserted. (shrink)

Controversial results have been reported concerning the neural mechanisms involved in the processing of rewards and punishments. On the one hand, there is evidence suggesting that monetary gains and losses activate a similar fronto-subcortical network. On the other hand, results of recent studies imply that reward and punishment may engage distinct neural mechanisms. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we investigated both regional and interregional functional connectivity patterns while participants performed a gambling task featuring unexpectedly high monetary gains and losses. (...) Classical univariate statistical analysis showed that monetary gains and losses activated a similar fronto-striatal-limbic network, in which main activation peaks were observed bilaterally in the ventral striatum. Functional connectivity analysis showed similar responses for gain and loss conditions in the insular cortex, the amygdala, and the hippocampus that correlated with the activity observed in the seed region ventral striatum, with the connectivity to the amygdale appearing more pronounced after losses. Larger functional connectivity was found to the medial OFC for negative outcomes. The fact that different functional patterns were obtained with both analyses suggests that the brain activations observed in the classical univariate approach identifies the involvement of different functional networks in a current task. These results stress the importance of studying functional connectivity in addition to standard fMRI analysis in reward-related studies. (shrink)

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by increased reward-seeking behavior. Investigators have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in conjunction with reward paradigms to test two opposing hypotheses about adolescent developmental changes in the striatum, a region implicated in reward processing. One hypothesis posits that the striatum is relatively hypo-responsive to rewards during adolescence, such that heightened reward-seeking behavior is necessary to achieve the same activation as adults. Another view suggests that during adolescence the striatal (...) class='Hi'>reward system is hyper-responsive, which subsequently results in greater reward-seeking. While evidence for both hypotheses has been reported, the field has generally converged on this latter hypothesis based on compelling evidence. In this review, I describe the evidence to support this notion, speculate on the disparate fMRI findings and conclude with future areas of inquiry to this fascinating question. (shrink)

Adapting to changing task demands is one of the hallmarks of human cognition. According to an influential theory, the conflict monitoring theory, the adaptation of information processing occurs in a context-sensitive manner in that conflicts signal the need for control recruitment. Starting from the conflict monitoring theory, here the authors discuss the role of affect in the context of conflict-triggered processing adjustments from three different perspectives: (1) the affective value of conflict per se, (2) the affective modulation of conflict-triggered processing (...) adjustments, and (3) the modulation of conflict adaptation by reward. Based on the current empirical evidence, the authors stress the importance of disentangling effects of affect and reward on conflict-triggered control adjustments. (shrink)

Both emotion and reward are primary modulators of cognition: Emotional word content enhances word processing, and reward expectancy similarly amplifies cognitive processing from the perceptual up to the executive control level. Here, we investigate how these primary regulators of cognition interact. We studied how the anticipation of gain or loss modulates the neural time course (event-related potentials, ERPs) related to processing of emotional words. Participants performed a semantic categorization task on emotional and neutral words, which were preceded by (...) a cue indicating that performance could lead to monetary gain or loss. Emotion-related and reward-related effects occurred in different time windows, did not interact statistically, and showed different topographies. This speaks for an independence of reward expectancy and the processing of emotional word content. Therefore, privileged processing given to emotionally valenced words seems immune to short-term modulation of reward. Models of language comprehension should be able to incorporate effects of reward and emotion on language processing, and the current study argues for an architecture in which reward and emotion do not share a common neurobiological mechanism. (shrink)

Stress is significant risk factor for the development of psychopathology, particularly symptoms related to reward processing. Importantly, individuals display marked variation in how they perceive and cope with stressful events, and such differences are strongly linked to risk for developing psychiatric symptoms following stress exposure. However, many questions remain regarding the neural architecture that underlies inter-subject variability in perceptions of stressors. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a monetary incentive delay paradigm, we examined the effects of self-reported perceived (...) stress levels on neural activity during reward anticipation and feedback in a sample of healthy individuals. We found that subjects reporting more uncontrollable and overwhelming stressors displayed blunted neural responses in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) following feedback related to monetary gains as well monetary losses. This is consistent with preclinical models that implicate the mPFC as a key site of vulnerability to the noxious effects of uncontrollable stressors. Our data help translate these findings to humans, and elucidate some of the neural mechanisms that may underlie stress-linked risk for developing reward-related psychiatric symptoms. (shrink)

The human reward system is sensitive to both social (e.g., validation) and non-social rewards (e.g., money) and is likely integral for relationship development and reputation building. However, data is sparse on the question of whether implicit social reward processing meaningfully contributes to explicit social representations such as trust and attachment security in pre-existing relationships. This event-related fMRI experiment examined reward system prediction-error activity in response to a potent social reward—social validation—and this activity’s relation to both attachment (...) security and trust in the context of real romantic relationships. During the experiment, participants’ expectations for their romantic partners’ positive regard of them were confirmed (validated) or violated, in either positive or negative directions. Primary analyses were conducted using predefined regions of interest, the locations of which were taken from previously published research. Results indicate that activity for mid-brain and striatal reward system regions of interest was modulated by social reward expectation violation in ways consistent with prior research on reward prediction-error. Additionally, activity in the striatum during viewing of disconfirmatory information was associated with both increases in post-scan reports of attachment anxiety and decreases in post-scan trust, a finding that follows directly from representational models of attachment and trust. (shrink)

Normal aging is associated with a decline in different cognitive domains and local structural atrophy as well as decreases in dopamine concentration and receptor density. To date, it is largely unknown how these reductions in dopaminergic neurotransmission affect human brain regions responsible for reward-based decision making in older adults. Using a learning criterion in a probabilistic object reversal task, we found a learning stage by age interaction in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during decision making. While young adults recruited (...) the dlPFC in an early stage of learning reward associations, older adults recruited the dlPFC when reward associations had already been learned. Furthermore, we found a reduced change in ventral striatal BOLD signal in older as compared to younger adults in response to high probability rewards. Our data are in line with behavioral evidence that older adults show altered stimulus reward learning and support the view of an altered fronto-striatal interaction during reward-based decision making in old age, which contributes to prolonged learning of reward associations. (shrink)

Time occupies a central role in both the induction of causal relationships and determining the subjective value of rewards. Delays devalue rewards and also impair learning of relationships between events. The mathematical relation between the time until a delayed reward and its present value has been characterized as a hyperbola-like function, and increasing delays of reinforcement tend to elicit judgments or response rates that similarly show a negatively accelerated decay pattern. Furthermore, neurological research implicates both the hippocampus and pre-frontal (...) cortex in both these processes. Since both processes are broadly concerned with the concepts of reward, value, and time, involve a similar functional form, and have been identified as involving the same specific brain regions, it seems tempting to assume that the two processes are underpinned by the same cognitive or neural mechanisms. We set out to determine experimentally whether a common cognitive mechanism underlies these processes, by contrasting individual performances on causal judgment and delay discounting tasks. Results from each task corresponded with previous findings in the literature, but no relation was found between the two tasks. The task was replicated and extended by including two further measures, the Barrett Impulsiveness Scale (BIS), and a causal attribution task. Performance on this latter task was correlated with results on the causal judgment task, and also with the non-planning component of the BIS, but the results from the delay discounting task was not correlated with either causal learning task nor the BIS. Implications for current theories of learning are considered. (shrink)

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is based on the assumption that a decision maker is equally motivated to seek reward and avoid punishment, and that decision making is governed solely by the intertemporal attribute (i.e., preference for an option that produces an immediate outcome instead of one that yields a delayed outcome is believed to reflect risky decision making and is considered a deficit). It was assumed in the present study that the emotion- and cognition-based processing dichotomy manifests in (...) the IGT as reward and punishment frequency and the intertemporal attribute. It was further proposed that the delineation of emotion- and cognition-based processing is contingent upon reward and punishment as manifested in the frame of the task (variant type) and task motivation (instruction type). The effects of IGT variant type (reward vs. punishment) and instruction type (task motivation induced by instruction types: reward, punishment, reward and punishment, or no hint) on the intertemporal and frequency attributes of IGT decision-making were analyzed. Decision making in the reward variant was equally governed by both attributes, and significantly affected by instruction type, while decision making in the punishment variant was differentially affected by the two attributes and not significantly impacted by instruction type. These results suggest that reward and punishment manifested via task frame as well as the task motivation may facilitate the differentiation of emotion- and cognition-based processing in the IGT. (shrink)

It is becoming increasingly appreciated that affective influences can contribute strongly to goal-oriented cognition and behaviour. However, much work is still needed to properly characterize these influences and the mechanisms by which they contribute to cognitive processing. An important question concerns the nature of emotional manipulations (i.e., direct induction of affectively-valenced subjective experience) versus motivational manipulations (e.g., delivery of performance-contingent rewards and punishments) and their impact on cognitive control. Empirical evidence suggests that both kinds of manipulations can influence cognitive control (...) in a systematic fashion, but investigations of both have largely been conducted independently of one another. Likewise, some theoretical accounts suggest that emotion and motivation may modulate cognitive control via common neural mechanisms, while others suggest the possibility of dissociable influences. Here, we provide an analysis and synthesis of these various accounts, suggesting potentially fruitful new research directions to test competing hypotheses. (shrink)

Background/Aims: Trait binge eating has been proposed as a ‘hedonic subtype’ of obesity characterised by enhanced food liking and wanting, and a preference for high-fat sweet foods in the laboratory. The current study examined the influence of trait binge eating in overweight or obese women on eating behaviour under laboratory and free-living conditions over a 48-hour period. Methods: In a matched pairs design, 24 overweight or obese females (BMI: 30.30 ± 2.60kg/m2; Age: 25.42 ± 3.65yrs) with high or low scores (...) on the Binge Eating Scale were divided into one of two groups; Obese Binge (O-B) and Obese Non-binge (O-NB). Energy intake was assessed using combined laboratory energy intake measures and 24-hour dietary recall procedures. Liking and wanting were assessed using the Leeds Food Preference Questionnaire. Results: There was a significant association between overall energy consumed, and energy consumed from snack foods under laboratory and free-living conditions. O-B exhibited a greater preference for sweet snack foods in their laboratory and free-living eating behaviour. These findings were supported by greater laboratory-based measures of wanting and craving for this food type in O-B. In addition, O-B consumed significantly more energy than their estimated daily energy requirements in the laboratory suggesting that they over-consumed compared to O-NB. Conclusions: The measurement concordance between laboratory and free-living based energy intake supports the validity of laboratory-based test meal methodologies Variation in trait binge eating was associated with increased craving and wanting for high-fat sweet foods and overconsumption in the laboratory. These findings support the use of trait binge eating as a common hedonic subtype of obesity and extend the relevance of this subtype to habitual patterns of energy intake. (shrink)